CPAC Speech: ‘I Want Obama To Fail’

“So what is so strange about being honest and saying I want Barack Obama to fail if his mission is to restructure and reform this country so that capitalism and individual liberty are not its foundation?”

In a speech that CNN analyst Bill Schneider called the speech “mocking, bullying and full of contempt,” Limbaugh doubled-down on his wish for Obama to fail. Naturally, the statement was greeted with thunderous applause from the room full of conservatives.

But it wasn’t the first time he’d said it: the statement initially came up on his radio show a month earlier, when he noted that he wouldn’t need 400 words to describe his hope for Obama’s presidency, but just four: “I hope he fails.” It’s a statement he’s stuck with and refused to apologize for, despite catching heat even from his own party. Michael Steele, then-chairman of the Republican National Committee, lashed out against Limbaugh’s comments: “His whole thing is entertainment. Yes, it’s incendiary. Yes, it’s ugly.”